The "AMD
or Intel?" debate has been renewed yet again with the introduction of AMD's latest Phenom II X4 series processor, the 975 Black Edition.

AMD's
Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition is a quad-core, 3.6GHz socket
AM3 chip with 6MB of L3 cache and 512KB of L2 cache per core. It's being
released in tandem with the AMD Phenom II X4 840 CPU. Both processors are ideally
suited to socket AM3 motherboards built around the recent AMD 890FX or 890GX
chipsets. The Phenom II X4 975 BE is
backwards compatible with socket AM2+ motherboards and forwards compatible with
the as yet unreleased socket AM3+ platform which is
anticipated for release in mid-2011. The upcoming Socket AM3+ platform is
for AMDs upcoming 'bulldozer' architecture that will see AMD processors with up
to eight cores and a rumored new iteration of TurboCore dynamic frequency adjustment.

The Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition constitutes
the current flagship quad-core offering from AMD and a 200MHz notch up in
clock speed and benchmark performance from the previous Phenom II X4 970 BE
chip. It is based on the AMD 'Deneb' architecture and rather than a 140W
TDP we're pleasantly surprised to see AMD launch with a more efficient stepping
at 125W TDP.

Like all of AMD's Black Edition processors, overclockers will appreciate that the Phenom II X4 975
Black Edition is multiplier unlocked. Unlocked chips make overclocking a rather
fun prospect because they enable us to change the CPU multiplier (default:
18.0x) to rapidly boost the clock speed from to 4GHz and possibly even further.
PCSTATS will try its hand at pushing the PII X4 975 BE processor past 4.5GHz
shortly...

Manufactured in Dresden Germany by Global Foundries
FAB1, the quad-core Phenom II
X4 975 Black Edition processor is built on the 45nm DSL silicon-on-insulator process.
Its monolithic CPU die measures 258mm2 in size and
contains roughly 758 million transistors.
This socket AM3 processor has a moderate thermal design power (TDP)
of 125 Watts so any recent AMD heatsink will be sufficient to cool it. If
a quiet and compact thermal solution is what's
needed, this Zalman heatsink is a good low noise candidate that's
not too bulky. PCSTATS partner site, Frostytech, has a list of five or so top
heatsinks suited to cooling AMD processors if
you're looking for
a few heatsink recommendations.

As with
recent Phenom II X4 CPUs, the
975 BE supports Hypertransport 3.0 with a 16-bit link running at 2.0GHz up and
2.0GHz downstream. Total system bandwidth
peaks at 37.3GB/s for DDR3 platforms and 33.1GB/s for legacy DDR2
systems. The Phenom II X4's on-board 128-bit wide memory controller supports DDR2 RAM at speeds
of up to 1066MHz and DDR3 RAM at speeds of up to 1333MHz. DDR2 memory
compatibility is expected to exit from future AMD processors in late 2011, but for the
time being it brings a nice level of backwards compatibility into the fold
for users upgrading older PC systems.

Legacy socket AM2+ upgrades aside, the AMD Phenom II
X4 975BE is best suited to socket AM3 motherboards based on the AMD
890FX or AMD 890GX chipsets that provide the full 37.3GB/s of
processor-to-system bandwidth. The AMD 890FX chipset is suitable for
multi-graphics card gaming systems, the AMD 890GX features integrated graphics
and a comprehensive assortment of video out ports like HDMI for home
theatre PC applications.

Core-by-Core CPU Power Draw

CPU power
draw (expressed in Watts) can be easily measured by way of total system power if
you have a simple electrical power meter. To determine how much juice the CPU is
consuming, we only need to compare power draw with the processor resting at
idle, and with each core at 100% CPU utilization. Stress Prime
SP2004 is used to stress each core of the processor individually. Total
system power draw is measured with an Extech Power Analyzer Datalogger (model
380803).

Total System Idle Power
Draw

Processor

Power Draw

Intel Pentium 4 540

150 Watts

Intel Pentium D 840

165 Watts

Intel Pentium D 940

168 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

117 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750

123 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

131 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500

114 Watts

Intel Core i5 750

124 Watts

Intel Core i7 920

144 Watts

AMD Sempron 3600+

120 Watts

AMD Athlon64 4000+

163 Watts

AMD Athlon64 FX-60

127 Watts

AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+

143 Watts

AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+

156 Watts

AMD Athlon64 FX-62

168 Watts

AMD Athlon II X2 240e

122 Watts

AMD Athlon II X2 250

128 Watts

AMD Athlon II X3 435

128 Watts

AMD Athlon II X4 620

130 Watts

AMD Athlon II X4 635

127 Watts

AMD Athlon II X4 645

120 Watts

AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE

145 Watts

AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE

143 Watts

AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE

155 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 840

114 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 910e

131 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE

148 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE

150 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE

134 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 975
BE

140 Watts

AMD Phenom II X6 1075T

129 Watts

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T

130 Watts

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T

138 Watts

The
Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition system idles at 140 Watts, a bit higher than the
previous X4 970BE model at 134Watts. We'll see where the power draw figures
stand once each of the four CPU cores come under stress.

Total System Stressed
Power Draw - All Cores/Threads

Processor

Power Draw

Intel Pentium 4 540

223 Watts

Intel Pentium D 840 (2 Core)

240 Watts

Intel Pentium D 940 (2 Core)

253 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2 Core)

156 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2 Core)

163 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (2 Core)

158 Watts

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (2)

149W

Intel Core i5 750 (4 Core)

169 Watts

Intel Core i7 920 (8 Thread)

213 Watts

AMD Sempron 3600+

148 Watts

AMD Athlon64 4000+

172 Watts

AMD Athlon64 FX-60 (2 Core)

196 Watts

AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ (2 Core)

173 Watts

AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (2 Core)

207 Watts

AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (2 Core)

235 Watts

AMD Athlon II X2 240e (2 Core)

153 Watts

AMD Athlon II X2 250 (2 Core)

163 Watts

AMD Athlon II X3 435 (3 Core)

183 Watts

AMD Athlon II X4 620 (4 Core)

195 Watts

AMD Athlon II X4 635 (4 Core)

211 Watts

AMD Athlon II X4 645 (4 Core)

193 Watts

AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE (2 Core)

181 Watts

AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE (2 Core)

187 Watts

AMD Phenom
II X3 720 (3 Core)

213 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 840 (4 Core)

190 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 910e (4 Core)

176 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 955 (4 Core)

236 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 965 (4 Core)

243 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE ( 4 Core)

214 Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 975 BE
(1 Core)

168
Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 975 BE
(2 Core)

187
Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 975 BE
(3 Core)

208
Watts

AMD Phenom II X4 975 BE (4 Core)

225 Watts

AMD Phenom II X6 1075T (6 Core)

228 Watts

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (6 Core)

263W

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (6 Core)

243W

The AMD
Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition computer system draws 225Watts of power with all
four of the CPU cores 100% stressed. This figure is 11W higher than the previous
X4-970 BE based PC under similar load conditions. Compared to the slightly
faster Core i5 750 system (169W), the Phenom II
X4 975 Black Edition PC system is more demanding on the power front - a
continuing challenge all AMD processors face. Under single core load power draw
is a moderate 168W.